Jena v. Winston-Salem

There is no clear winner.  But a lot of things are similar, and a lot of things are different.  Here are a few things that have stood out to me in my three months in Jena.

1. Beer:  Winston-Salem had a very diverse beer selection.  Jena has a small beer selection.  All the beer here is made well, but it just lacks the flavor I've come to expect from ales (after all, Jena only has lagers).  I've given up drinking beer when we go out and only drink it rarely at home now.
2. Bureaucracy: In Winston-Salem you write a check to your landlord every month.  Once we signed the lease in Jena, we had to take it to the bank.  The bank set up an automatic draft from our account to the landlords account on the first of the month.  Thus, no late payments... ever, that is, provided you have money in your account.  However, in order to pay a bill online, we have to have at least three numbers from the bank, and one of those numbers has to be replaced every time you use it.  Obnoxious.  
3. Grocery Stores.  In Winston-Salem, I frequented Harris Teeter once we moved downtown... and occasionally Whole Foods.  The grocers are small here in Jena, though not as small as I had feared.  My grocery store across the street from our apartment is about the size of Trader Joe's in the Forum in Atlanta.  So, not huge, but not tiny either.  Edeka carries a nice assortment food, but they frequently run out of fresh poultry on Monday (restock day is Tuesday).  Also, the butchers (found in every grocery store too, except Aldi) run out of ground meat by the end of the day.  I have had the fortune of having extra meat ground for me fresh, but my German isn't great, so if it's not on display, I don't ask for it.  Edeka has also surprised me on its selection: kidney beans, truffle oil, truffles (mushrooms and chocolate), peanut butter, honey of all kinds, tortillas, but no black beans, no vanilla extract, no baking soda, no crisco, no self rising flour.  So I've improvised and made vanilla sugar and hope to follow that up with vanilla extract if I can get my hands on some Mexican vanilla beans.  I now make my biscuits with butter and baking powder (and I won't go back... butter biscuits are wonderful!)
4. Drugs:  Over the counter has a very different meaning here.  Grocery stores do not sell drugs.  Herbal supplements are remedies are available at what we would consider drug stores (similar to CVS in products sold, but no pharmacy) and stores similar to Target (Mueller).  To get actual drugs, like ibuprofen or aspirin or acetaminophen, you have to go to an Apotheke (apothecary).  But even then the floor space is filled with herbal remedies and things like band aids and ace bandages (minus those particular brand names).  To get ibuprofen, you have to go up to the counter and ask for it.  And acetaminophen is called paracetamol in Europe and the UK, so that threw me for a loop.  But of course, you don't need a prescription for these drugs (unless the dosages are high), but you do have to have someone behind the counter get it for you.  Prescriptions aren't difficult to get, and it was actually a relatively pleasant experience, minus all the bureaucracy.  
5. Manners:  In Winston-Salem, it was customary to take a host/hostess gift (for us it was always wine or beer).  It's the same here!  Also, in a group of Germans, you wait until everyone has their meal before eating (not dissimilar from the US), and then, the "head of the table" whomever that may be, says "Guten Appetit" before people start eating.  Meals are eaten slowly, and no one leaves the table until everyone has finished, even at the university cafeteria.  Also, everyone eats with a knife and fork in hand, and I rarely see the knife put down... sometimes I even see people put both utensils in the same hand to pick up a beverage.  
6. The tipping process at a restaurant is very different.  A good tip is 10%, though normally you just round up... so if your tab is 18,50 you pay 20,00 euros.  Additionally, when the server brings you your tab, s/he tells you the price, you hand the server the money and give them a figure (so if you had a 50,00 euro bill and the tab was 18,50 euro, you tell the server 20,00 euro and s/he gives you 30,00 euros.  It's a very different mindset, but we've adjusted quickly.  With large groups of people, the servers are happy to split the check, and in a lot of restaurants, they do it by hand!  Winston-Salem was way too dependent on calculators for that to ever happen!
7. Transportation:  Yay for public transportation!  We have a bus and tram system, and both have stops within 20 meters of our apartment.  I pay 47,60 euro to get a monthly pass, which is the full price.  If I remember correctly, the full price for MARTA was more than that in 2001 when I was going to Georgia State.  Jason frequently walks to work, and so is trying out not getting a monthly pass, but I need it to get groceries in town if I don't go to the one across the street, and will definitely need it when I start working (it's 4.5km away, which is considered the other side of town here).  To give you and idea of distance, the bowling alley is 2.8km from our apartment and it takes half an hour of brisk walking to get there.  During the work day, the tram runs every 10 minutes, and more often during the morning rush.  On the weekends it's every 20 minutes, but if the weather is good, we'll just walk into town.